The Birth of a Legend
by Snapegirlkmf
Summary: The Bordreaux Broom: This wicker instrument in the hands of Belle or her sister Marie is feared by idiots everywhere. We go back in time to the womens' childhood to see how the legend was born and why all run and hide when they see it. Unexpected verse AU set before This Doesn't Have To Be Love


~ The Birth of a Legend ~

By CJ Moliere

**Author's Notes: In Unexpected Surprise, Belle and Marie briefly explain how the legend of the now famous Bordreaux Brooms came to. Now here is the full story. Takes place before This Doesn't Have To Be Love. Enjoy dearies!**

Belle and Marie had always been as close as sisters even before Belle learned they were in fact half-sisters. Maurice took Marie in after the death of her mother, Jeanette. Maurice and Jeanette were childhood sweethearts but being from a noble house, Maurice was already pre-contracted to Collette Aubert and Jeannette wouldn't allow him to go against his family's wishes no matter how much she loved him and Collette was never unkind to Marie in the short time she knew her before she passed away when an illness swept through Avonlea.

While Marie was being trained to be Belle's lady-in-waiting, Belle was being taught to be a lord's wife though she wanted to do so much more. She insisted on receiving an education equivalent to that of a man and her father didn't have the heart to refuse her. He brought in the best tutors in the realms and both girls received the finest education.

Still, the girls could be a little mischievous when they wanted and to be and sometimes they caused a little mischief without intending to do it. One afternoon they asked Arnaud, the castle chef to let them help him prepare the evening meal. He eyed the two girls skeptically.

"You want to cook? You don't know how!" he exclaimed.

"How hard can it be?" Belle asked.

"Very if you do not pay attention to what you are doing. Very well. You may help with the spices and only put in the amounts I tell you. Understood?"

Both girls nodded enthusiastically.

The main course for that evening was roasted lamb with rosemary, mashed potatoes, gravy, croissants, corn and peas. Arnaud handed the bowl of mashed potatoes to Belle and asked her to season them with salt, pepper and chili power, directing her on how much she should use while Marie added butter to the peas. Belle had a difficult time with the chili powder, accidentally adding too much in. She immediately started stirring them before Arnaud noticed her mistake. Marie added too much butter to the peas and the chef already had them in the serving bowl before she could correct her mistake.

Dinner that evening went well at first, Maurice praising his daughters for taking the initiative to learn how to cook when neither of their mothers could do it without burning something. An hour after dinner everyone started complaining of stomach pains and made a mad dash for the outhouses. Arnaud turned to the girls, his eyes narrowed to slits.

"What did you do to my dinner!" he raged at them.

"Ummm…ummmm….nothing…" Belle said nervously.

"Belle…"

"Papa, it was an accident!" she cried.

"What did you do, foolish girl?" Arnaud shook his finger at her. "Zis is why I do not want a woman in my kitchen. You cause a disaster."

"Like you haven't made mistakes, you old trout," snapped Marie.

"And I suppose you made a few of your own, didn't you?"

"All right yes! I may have added a little too much butter to the peas!"

"And ahh…I added too much hot powder…" Belle admitted shamefully.

Maurice groaned. Now he understood why his outhouses were busy. Even his stomach was rumbling. Arnaud knew the lord couldn't handle too much of his hot powder or even the butter. Everyone would feel better in the morning but it was going to be a difficult night!

He gave both of the girls a Disappointed Look. "You are both confined to your room for a week."

"Papa!" they protested.

"Don't 'Papa' me, my girls. When you made your mistakes you should have told Arnaud immediately and helped correct them instead of pretending they never happened and look what your deceptions have caused." He pointed to the window where several servants were racing to the outhouse.

Both girls bowed their heads in shame.

"I hope you will learn from this. Now go on, up to your rooms."

Though the girls felt terrible for what they did, they also hated being unable to go outside. Belle tried to pass the time reading while Marie practiced her dancing and once in a while the two girls would gaze out the windows with longing.

"I'm tired of this! I want to go outside!" Marie said when she ran into Belle's room a few days later.

"So do I Marie but we can't. Papa has the servants watching us."

The younger girl glanced over at Belle's bed and then the window, a mischievous grin on her lips. "They won't be watching here," she said indicating the window. "I know you hate climbing but it's not as far as the trees if we do it from my room."

"We can make a rope out of our sheets! Marie, try to get the window open!"

Belle pulled the sheets off the beds and started making the rope while Marie tried to unlatch the windows in her own room with little success, thinking their father had them locked. She sighed with frustration.

"Belle, can you help me. I can't get this to budge!"

The two girls pulled and pushed the latches but they refused to give. Not willing to let a stubborn window put a dent in their plans, they smashed one of the panels with a rock Marie found outside once that she thought was interesting.

Belle was nervous. She wasn't as good at climbing but the desire for freedom seemed to strengthen their limbs. The girls embraced each other once they were on the ground and raced down to the village.

There was a group of children, a few of them the children of their servants that were playing a game of boules when they spotted Belle and Marie.

"We thought you couldn't come out and play," said one.

"We broke out," Belle declared proudly.

The others gaped at them. "How did you do it?" asked one of the boys. His name was Pierre and he was from another noble family and quite taken with Marie but he was not in the best of health.

"We climbed out Marie's window."

"You're lucky you didn't break your necks!" Pierre exclaimed.

"We were fine, Pierre. Come on. We want to play boule," Belle insisted.

They made a makeshift court on the ground and had eight medium sized balls one set blue, the other red and a smaller ball called the jack. The object of the game was to get the larger balls as close to the small one as possible to score a point. Belle and Marie loved playing and Belle usually scored the most points for her team though she didn't play often. The girls stayed on the same team with Pierre and another boy and were winning by five points when they heard a commotion in the marketplace. The children ran to see what was going on and were horrified when Madame Bertrand was being screamed at by the baker.

"You want to buy my bread, you pay for it!" he yelled, waving a loaf in her face.

"But...but I only have one coin...and my family needs..."

"The price is two or you get nothing!"

"Oooh, that sour sod! He always charges outrageous prices and his bread is stale most of the time," Belle said angrily, glaring at him from a distance.

"Maman says he cheats people all the time, especially women whom he thinks have no brains at all." spoke up Andre, one of the other boys.

"Oh, does he? I'd like to show him we have more brains than he does!" she hissed. She marched over to the stand and glowered at the baker. "Stop being so greedy and let her have the bread!" she demanded.

"Mind your business brat!" he snarled and backhanded her. The other children gasped. Striking a noble's child carried a harsh penalty that they were certain the baker wasn't willing to pay. The girl was shocked at first. No one had ever struck her like that, even her father.

"You ass!" Marie yelled and stomped on his foot.

He seized her by her hair and yanked it hard. "Maybe that'll teach you to mind your betters, little bitch." She screamed in pain and tried to kick him again but he held her away from him.

Andre raced back to the castle to find Maurice.

Belle grabbed a broom from another stall and swung it, delivering a painful blow to the man's groin. He fell to the ground moaning in pain. Marie smirked and kneeled down, squeezing the already painful area and making him scream louder. When he stood up both girls smacked his backside with the broom. Several men who were watching the event cringed and covered their assets, not wanting them to become the targets of the girls' wrath or even their own wives. Nothing weakened a man more than an injury to the groin and for some odd reason…they blamed it on the gods' twisted sense of humor, more and more women were making this discovery…and putting it to use.

"Still think you're our betters you miserable lout?" asked Belle.

Several women, all of them having experienced the same ill treatment from the baker decided to have their own revenge. They threw vegetables, tried to strike him with the broom and even used his own stale bread as ammunition while two young girls watched with pride and amusement. Never again would a man accuse _any _of them that they had no brains.

"Belle and Marie Bordreaux, what in the gods' name is going on here!" Maurice yelled. Both girls bowed their heads and turned to face their furious parent.

Belle related what she witnessed between the baker and the lady and his reaction when she and Marie expressed their disapproval. Now he was giving the baker an icy stare. The man backed away in fear.

"Sir Maurice, I had no idea they were your children..." he stammered.

"He belongs in prison for how he treats us!" yelled one of the women. "Lousy cheat wouldn't even sell his goods to his own mother if she didn't pay him enough!"

"Lefou, you will spend the next year in my prison. Perhaps that will change your attitude about how you conduct business and treat women and children. And if not...you'll stay longer," Maurice declared.

"Let him rot!" yelled the women.

Several of Maurice's guards dragged the baker away. Maurice ushered his daughters into his coach and they rode back to the castle. He ordered both of them into his receiving room, both of them dreading what punishment he would give them for their disobedience. They were too old to be spanked, which was the punishment he was sometimes forced to give them as younger girls when they disobeyed only he used his hand not a whip or switch as he knew some parents did and he never enjoyed doing it.

"You both disobeyed me by going into town."

"We know, Papa," Belle said sadly.

"You also involved yourselves in what could have been a more violent situation. Do you remember when your nurse..?"

They did remember...too well. Their nurse was killed in a riot over new tax laws and the girls would have been too or injured if they'd stayed instead of obeying the nurse's order to run and get help.

"You are confined to your rooms for another week and if you disobey again, it is a month. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Papa."

He hugged them both. "Go on...up to your rooms until dinnertime and I want you both to think about what you've done and remember to not repeat your mistake."

But on that day a legend was born...in the hands of a Bordreaux woman a simple wicker broom was as deadly as a knife, a sword or a gun. Men in all the realms would be afraid...very afraid for when that broom was meant for you, there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It and its mistress always found you.


End file.
